


Trying To Take Care Of You

by Lady_Katana4544



Series: Smallfandomfest fics [1]
Category: Ghost Whisperer
Genre: Caring friends, Community: smallfandomfest, Friends taking care of each other, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 07:41:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7499778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Katana4544/pseuds/Lady_Katana4544
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Delia and Eli make a promise to Jim that they would try to take care of Melinda for him. And make sure that someone is with her so that she doesn't get food poisoning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trying To Take Care Of You

**Author's Note:**

> * Written for this prompt from [smallfandomfest](http://smallfandomfest.livejournal.com/), _Ghost Whisperer, Melinda & Delia & Eli, After Jim’s death, someone has to make sure Melinda eats actual, edible food. Or: how Delia and Eli make sure Melinda doesn’t get food poisoning without Jim there to cook._
> 
>  
> 
> * It was fun to rewatch most of the series for this, so I'm hoping that I got the characterization at least partially right for the characters.

Melinda hadn’t told them to leave, so they had stayed in the little waiting area together and chatted quietly while drinking the tea and coffee as they left the hot chocolate alone for Melinda to have when she came back to them.

They know something is instantly wrong when they watch as nurses start running down the hallway that Melinda had walked down with a nurse barely two hours ago. They share a look and they know at once.

Their answer also comes to them in the form of a young nurse bringing a tearful Melinda back to them and she immediately moves to embraces Delia. The young nurse seems hesitant to leave her with them, but after some coaxing she confirms their assumptions that Jim had passed away from complications with his surgery before leaving the three of them alone.

They share a look over Melinda’s head.

Sharing a silent promise to Jim that they will take care of Melinda for him.

And of course make sure that she has edible food without accidentally burning down the house in an attempt to cook for herself.

0

She doesn’t sleep for at least three to four days by her own counting and when she’s awake she is staring at a photograph of herself and Jim or simply just photos of Jim by himself. She doesn’t care much for food.

She ignores the ghosts that come to her help. As much as she wants to help them find peace, she can’t bring herself together long enough to help them and their loved ones.

They tell her that they need to have a funeral for Jim, but she can’t bring herself to acknowledge that. She can’t bring herself to do, because acknowledge that thought means that her Jim is gone forever.

How is she supposed to live in this world without him?

0

Somehow they manage to have a funeral for him and Eli lets her cry into his chest as he holds her gently while watching as Jim’s casket is lowered slowly into the ground and then buried. Then he takes her home later, where she mourns alone in the silence of her home.

Two days later, Delia comes to visit her and with her, she brings enough warm food that is more than what two people could hope to eat through within a day and an evening. She can’t find the energy to send her away nor does she begrudge her friends for being worried about her.

Delia stays throughout the afternoon and well into the late evening with her, just simply talking with and to her. Making noise to the fill the new silence of her home.

She finds it hard to say no when Delia offers to stay the night with her. All the same she finds it hard to fall asleep while Delia seems to fall asleep rather easily on the guest bed as Melinda sits there beside her. After an hour or two, she shifts on the bed intent on getting up and going to her own bed then stands still as the movement wakes Delia.

"Melinda?" she calls, voice thick with sleep. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she answer softly, levely. "Go back to sleep, Delia." The bed creaks, as she shifts towards her to edge of the bed. Delia reaches out with one hand to pat Melinda’s arm gently, ever so lightly. Then she leaves it resting on Melinda’s elbow as she surrenders once more to sleep’s call as Melinda stares at her hand.

The next day Delia says nothing of it and neither does she. Neither of them need to really. So Delia says another two nights with her, only leaving for a bit to check on her son, get fresh food and clothes for herself in a lingered stay over. 

Then eventually she goes back home to her son, leaves Melinda alone with her ghosts that her haunt, the soft lingering whispers of Jim’s voice, and that Eli will be coming by to check on her too. Maybe even stay with her for a couple nights just to make sure Melinda’s really okay. 

0

How is she supposed to live without her husband? Her dearest Jim? The man who had been her best, dearest friend in the whole world and confidant.

Jim had been a part of her life for so long, that she wasn’t completely certain that she knew how to move on in her life without him there. His voice, his clothes, and the very scent of him still lingered in the house.

Everything, every little item that had been his, in their bedroom still lay perfectly in place as he had left, and she couldn’t bring herself to try changing anything. To pack up any of Jim’s clothes and little knick knacks that he had been so very fond.

She goes to his side of their - her - dresser and pulls out one of his shirts before going over to the bed, laying down in the middle of it between her side and his. Bringing both the shirt and his pillow near to her nose, she inhales his scent and starts to cry again, not caring if there are any ghosts around to see her tears.

For the first time since his death, she has nightmares about ghosts and Jim. Melinda has no idea what to make of that nightmare when she thinks about it, the next day.

0

Eli comes to her house late in the day with more just food to make something to eat that would probably be junk food and a shoulder bag that has a couple bottles of wine in it. He doesn’t ask her how she’s doing unlike Delia had in one of their many conversations when she stayed over and she is grateful for that.

She knows that both of them understand grief well enough, but Eli seems keen on not asking the same questions as Delia. Maybe they’re keeping in contact over who’s staying with her? She really doesn’t know.

He instead hands her a bottle of wine and they toast each other before taking a sip from their respective bottles.

0

Tipping her head back, she stares ahead, with dry eyes adjusting the suddenness of the growing light from a nearby window a couple days later. The floor itself seems to shift under her back and staring at the lights in the ceiling, makes her dizzy. For a moment, just moving alone is hard to and she stares at the half empty wine bottle on the counter that looks like it has a clone. Melinda just stares quietly at it, waiting for her blurry eyes to make it become one once more.

Her skin prickled, goosebumps running up and down his arms as ghosts start fluttering around her again. Her back was chilled, her shirt and bra, both clammy wet with cold sweat. The air conditioner blows directly onto her, chilling her body, and the floor beneath her is as hard as a smooth stone. Pressing down, humming something low and indistinct, she burrowed fingers into the last shirt she had remembered seeing Jim wear a day before he had died. She'd created a rather pretty looking necklace with their wedding rings and some colorful string she had found.


End file.
